Prime Agricultural Land

Agribusiness

Commercial agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations. Agricultural goods and processed foods are mass-produced.

Shifting Cultivation

A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for relatively few years (until they have depleted the nutrients) and left fallow for a relatively long period (to move to fresher fields with more productive soil).

Winnow

Hull

Double Cropping

Crop Rotation

The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil. Different crops consume different nutrients, so rotating them gives the soil a chance to replenish the nutrients used each year.

Ranching

Horticulture

Truck Farming

Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning batering or the exchange of commodities. These commercial farms produce large quantities of fruits and vegetables to be transported and sold to food processors, who package and freeze them to sell to consumers.

Sustainable Agriculture

Noodle Line

This imaginary line serves as a boundary that determines what types of crops may be grown in China. North of the line, farmers grow wheat, and noodles make up the main food. South of the line, farmers grow rice as the primary crop.

Extensive Subsistence Agriculture

Agriculture and livestock raised for family use on large shifting areas of land. Families depend on crops and animals farmed for their survival and use a minimal amount of labor across wide areas. Nomadic herding and shifting cultivation are examples of this type of agriculture. This type of farming may result in erosion and other environmental problems.

Pastoral Nomadism

Type of animal husbandry involves moving herds seasonally to lands that can best support them. For example, herders may move their herds to warmer lands in the winter and to cooler lands in the summer. This is a form of subsistence farming.

Mediterranean Agriculture

Market Gardening Activities

Type of farming that refers to the raising of large, bulky crop items suchu as melons, close to marketplaces. These activities must take place near markets so that crops do not spoil or incur great expense to transport.

Feedlots

Large farms that focus on animal husbandry, specifically the raising of cattle and hogs. Each lot may house thousands of heads of cattle or hogs. Feedlots produce large quantities of animal wastes that can contaminate local water sources.

Suitcase Farms

Organic Farming

The production and sale of foods and fibers using only natural farming methods, including composting, crop rotation, green manure, and biological pest control. It excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Intertillage

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's)

Plants and animals that have been changed at the genetic level. Scientists change their DNA to increase the plants and animals size, yield, or make them more disease-resistant. Also called biotechnology or genetic engineering.

First Aglricultural Revolution

Period in time when people began shifting from hunting and gathering to farming. As a result, people became more sedentary and their populations increased. The transition took place in many societies between 10,000-12,000 years ago. (Also called Neolithiic Ag Rev)

Second Agricultural Revolution

Period in time when farming improved do to the increased mechanization, transportation, and production that ocurred as a result of the industrial revolution. Crop production increased, resulting in population growth. This transition began during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Green Revolution

Also known as the third agricultural revolution, it refers to the use of genetic engineering and biotechnology in farming. Scientists increased size, productivity, disease resistance, and the ability to grow in challenging environments.

Von Thunen's Model of Agricultural Land Use

Land use model proposed by Johann Heinrich von Thunen, states that crops grown on commercial farms are selected based on their proximity to markets, the cost of transporting them to those markets, and the value of the crops relative to the value of the land. According too this model, crops that are difficult or costly to tramsport are grown closer to markets than those that may be transported more efficiently.

Vegetative Planting

Carl Sauer

Conducted pioneering research on the origins and dispersal of plant and animal domestication. (Vegetative planting). Came up with the original agriculture hearths. Sedentary Hypothesis: in areas with rich resources, people become more sedentary and could focus on new kinds of foods.

Adaptive Strategies

Environmental Modification

changes made to the environment. e.g., the use of pesticides to grow crops and the effects it has on the soil and environment; soil erosion and desertification caused by changes made to the environment.

Longlots

Distinct regional approach to land surveying found in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Louisiana, and Texas whereby land is divided into narrow parcels stretching back from rivers, roads, and canals. (Access to water)

Metes and Bounds

A system of land surveying east of the Appalachian Mountains. It is a system that relies on descriptions of land ownership and natural features such as streams or trees. Because of the imprecise nature of this surveying, the U.S. Land Office Survey abandoned the technique in favor of the rectangular survey system.